CI Higher Education Blog

CI Higher Education Blog provides our clients with current and upcoming digital trends, news, and insights across higher education on a variety of digital topics including social media, development apps, campaigns, user experience best practices and other hot-button educational issues.

Alumni Associations Celebrate Halloween

With Halloween festivities in full swing, nine schools in the Alumni Monitor coverage group hosted pumpkin painting events, costume contests and other themed events. After a review of all these celebrations, four stood out for their alum engagement and creativity:

1. Babson’s Instagram Challenge

In the #BabsonHalloween Instagram Contest, the school selected its favorite seasonal photos tagged with @babsonalumni and #BabsonHalloween, awarding Babson-branded prizes for the most creative costume, best team costume and costume that represented the most Babson spirit. A bonus contest awarded the best costumed dog tagged with #dogsofbabson with Babson dog swag.

Example #BabsonHalloween Instagram Contest Entry

2. Davidson’s Pumpkin Carving Patterns

In honor of National Pumpkin Day on October 26, Davidson College released six pumpkin-carving templates, including the Davidson mascot, logo and seal. The college promoted the jack-o’-lantern patterns on Twitter, including a downloadable link to the PDF.

Pumpkin Carving Pattern Twitter Post

3. OSU’s Football Friday Event

Prior to the OSU vs. Penn State football game on October 28, the university hosted a Halloween-themed Football Friday event at the Longaberger Alumni House for alums and their families. Attendees wore costumes, decorated mini pumpkins and trick-or-treat bags, and could get their faces painted or receive balloon animals. The college promoted the multi-generational event afterward on Twitter.

Example Football Friday Halloween Event Tweets

4. Temple’s Spooktacular 5K Run and 1-Mile Walk

To acknowledge October as National Physical Therapy Month, Temple University’s student-run pro bono clinic, North Broad Physical Therapy Center, hosted a Halloween-themed 5K run and one-mile walk to benefit the center. In addition to recognizing top finishers, the race awarded prizes for best costumes. Temple promoted the event on social media, including through a Temple Alumni tweet linked to the registration form.